Archive for 2005/12

Ha ha, you thought this post would be about the new Doctor Who season?

Sorry, nothing about that here.

Instead I comment on another beloved British series, namely, Narnia.

We went and saw the movie at midnight the day it came out, and I have to say that it was well worth it. The scriptwriters and effects people seem to have taken their cues from Peter Jackson’s crew rather than the craptastic team at WB that put together the first couple of Harry Potter filmstravesties.

But this isn’t about the movie either, really, except that I heartily support the several minor changes in the script that were made (Ugly when women fight NO LONGER), I missed the dorky second lion though I can see why he was left out, and my main problem was that I didn’t understand why the Beavers’ house was practically in the Witch’s front yard. I’d also been very much concerned they would take out the part where Peter kills the wolf, but that was intact.

This post is actually about an issue that’s been raised again by the movie, and that is the renumbering of the Narnia books that occurred a few years ago when a new edition was published. As someone who was annoyed that she had to put them on her shelf in the order: 6 1 5 2 3 4 7 let me just say to anyone who wants to whine about the revised order:

CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER IS THE ONLY ORDER.

As someone who has stopped before the last few pages of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe to read The Horse and His Boy (because that’s when it happens!!) and then gone back, I feel this is an important point to make.

It is understandable for authors to come up with a prequel or parallel story after they’ve progressed in a series, and those persons who’ve been reading along as the books are published may sadly be forced to read something out of chronological order. But this does not mean everyone is required to do so for all time. For future readers and for subsequent rereads of the series, it only makes sense to put them into their proper sequence according to the internal timeline of events.

So not only do I fully support the renumbering, I think the old numbering was WRONG. Publication date does not a series order make.